Tamayo: I inherited alleged anomalous transactions of PCG

MANILA, Philippines - Newly-retired former Philippine Coast Guard commandant Wilfredo Tamayo said that he merely inherited the alleged anomalous transactions of the PCG worth some P125 million funded from an oil spill clearing fund of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in 2008.

Tamayo, who had just turned over the PCG top post to his erstwhile deputy for operations, Vice Commandant for Operations and now PCG commandant, Vice Admiral Ramon Liwag last Tuesday, said that the various procurement transactions for ship spare parts and other equipment charged to a sub-allotment of the DOTC under its National Oil Spill Contingency Plan were done during the time of his immediate predecessor, former PCG commandant, Admiral Danilo Abinoja, with the full approval of the DOTC, then led by former transportation secretary Leandro Mendoza.

“They were all perfected contracts. The request (for the equipment and spare parts purchase) was done by the former commandant. It was approved by the DOTC,” Tamayo told The STAR in an interview yesterday afternoon.

Tamayo said that when he assumed the PCG top post in June 2008, he had no other course of action but to sign the checks for the payment of the suppliers, after verifying the procurement transactions had all the requisite documents and signatures.

“You can check the date of the various purchases and the public bidding held to get the winning suppliers and you will see that they were all done either early 2008 or in late 2007 before I assumed as PCG commandant in June 2008,” Tamayo said.

He bewailed attempts done by certain groups to implicate him in the alleged anomalous transactions, and lamented that these persistent underhanded efforts were unfair considering the level of service he had given in his many years of dedicated service in the PCG.

“I challenge everybody to ask the rank and file, our dedicated Coast Guard officers in the different units in our headquarters in Manila and those in our 200 districts out there in the field about my performance and accomplishments in my three years as commandant of the PCG,” Tamayo said.

He said that he considered President Aquino’s approving remarks about his achievements in the PCG in last Tuesday’s turnover as validation of his government service record.

Tamayo said that the move of Aquino hailing his performance was a major seal of approval considering that he was appointed to the PCG top post by former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

He noted that the President had even conferred the Order of Lakandula with the rank of commander on him last Tuesday. The Order of Lakandula is one of the highest honors given by the Philippine government to those who have shown leadership, prudence, fortitude, courage and resolve in the service of the people.

Tamayo stressed that the supposed graft cases filed against him for the alleged anomalus transactions worth P125 million under the DOTC-NOSCP were spurious since the Ombudsman had denied there was a graft case filed against him especially one filed by a certain “Mario Dichoso.”

Tamayo said that the persistent efforts to implicate him in the alleged questionable P125 million NOSCP deals was a result of his anti-graft stance at the PCG.